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Electric Vehicle Fast Charger From Australia Makes It To Europe

An award-winning Australian-designed electric vehicle fast charger will make its European debut at the Intersolar 2014 conference in Munich this week, kicking off a new commercial deal for the technology .

Queensland EV systems manufacturer Tritium will unveil its groundbreaking Veefil fast charge technology at the huge solar conference as part of a collaboration with Shanghai-based electrics manufacturer, SSE, that will see the chargers produced at volume and distributed globally.

Tritium, a Brisbane-based company that evolved from developing solar racing powertrains, launched its Veefil charging system in May 2013, boasting the ability to charge an EV 20 times faster than plugging it into the wall at home, and to add 50km range to an EV battery in just 10 minutes.

The charging system – developed over 10 years and backed by a $1.15 million Early Stage Commercialisation grant –last month won a Good Design Award, beating out products like the Audi A3 sedan and the new Melbourne e-class tram.

As well as its fast charging capabilities, the units are small and light-weight, can function in below-zero temperatures, and are relatively easy to install in locations most convenient for EV drivers, including airports, coffee shops, service and shopping centres.

“This is the coming together of a high- performance product with a high-quality manufacturing capability. The intention of the partnership is to address the cost barriers that currently exist in the electric vehicle charging market, without compromising on the quality of the product,” said Tritium managing director, David Finn.

“Having designed Veefil from the ground up, Tritium has full control of all product components, presenting a unique opportunity to take advantage of SSE’s extensive experience in power electronics manufacturing.”

If you jam that much power in within a period of 10 minutes, wouldn’t the battery overheat and explode?

GM’s new hybrid charger port is the way to go. We don’t need another standard.

spec9

“GM’s new hybrid charger port is the way to go. We don’t need another standard.” I love it when people contradict themselves in adjacent sentences.

Lesmando

They look vey nice. Tho I have never seen one in Brisbane. Maybe one day people will pool their money together and buy a few.

Jouni Valkonen

This is just silly. The point is why charging EV is slow is that there is only one EV that can accept >100 kW charging power. And that obviously is Tesla Model S.

The using of fast charging infrastructure will be always free as the infrastructure is financed by the car companies. If car manufacturer has established global fast charging network that is free to use, it increases the sales of that particular electric car manufacturer. Therefore no additional costs are needed for building and maintaining global fast charging network.

What is needed is the extensive slow charging network. E.g. every street lamp pole should be equipped with a socket where EV can be plugged in for free.

Bob_Wallace

Make it (eventually) every parking meter and public parking space.

And not for free. People can pay for their electricity. It would be a small fraction of what they would pay for fuel. And tack on a small fee so that the charging system pays for itself.

A 20 year payoff wouldn’t be out of line. Whatever sort of timeline is used for toll roads/bridges. Sell some 20 year bonds to raise the installation costs. The daily cost premium would be very small cents.

Jouni Valkonen

There is no point for paying EV charging, because the payment action as such costs more than the electricity. It is just better to use tax money for free public slow charging network and let the car companies to build extensive fast charging network.

If it is not required payment from EV charging, the it costs only $20 to install EV charging point into street lamp pole. But if they payment is required it costs more like $2000 or more.

JamesWimberley

“The using of fast charging infrastructure will be always free as the infrastructure is financed by the car companies.”

The current absence of a single standard isn’t funny. AFAICT you have the Japanese ChaDeMo, used on Nissans etc; the European Mennekes plug; and Tesla’s proprietary format. It’s not that difficult to equip charging stations and cars with adapters, but it’s inefficient. Oddly enough, the best sponsor of universal rechargers is probably the existing gas stations. They will make their money out of coffee and sandwiches not the fuel, as recharging takes longer.

Bob_Wallace

I suspect most rapid chargers are going to be found in the parking lots of fast food restaurants. Especially along major travel routes.

Gwennedd

As Bob said, Restaurants and fast food outlets are the best places for charging stations and then city street parking and parking lots in commercial zones…shop while you charge. Why would anyone that owns a ZEV want to go to a gas station??

Bob_Wallace

I think what James is saying is that gas stations will continue their morphing into mini-markets. The problem that most gas stations have is a lack of space. Many don’t have the room for 4x as many vehicles as they now handle at a time.

Fast food restaurants are already designed for 20-30 minute customers.
I’m actually thinking we might have highway ‘food courts’ with multiple restaurants sharing a large parking lot. That would allow maximum charger use. One wouldn’t have to go to a food place they didn’t like simply because it had the only available charger.

Gwennedd

Good point about the multiple restaurants. If someone is smart about city planning that would be the best and likely cheapest way to go. I still don’t see gas stations as places to hang out while your ZEV charges.

spec9

Supercharger access is not ‘free’. It is included in the price of the expensive 85KWH Model S. It is available for the 60KWH version but it costs $2000.

But the Supercharger network is brilliant. Just locate them between cities where the land is a cheap and there are not many people that will use them except the people driving between cities.

Jouni Valkonen

No, superchargers are free, because they increase the sales of Model S. Therefore Tesla is making far more money with superchargers than it invests on infrastructure and electricity bills.

Therefore, superchargers are not only free, but their marginal cost is NEGATIVE. That is, without supercharger access single Model S would cost more, not less.

Bob_Wallace

If the Superchargers are free then why do only the Tesla S owners who pay the extra $2k get to use them for free?

Jouni Valkonen

Like I said, it is probably due to higher warranty expenses, because 60 kWh version cannot accept as fast charging rate as 85 kWh version.

Also 85 kWh version is more profitable, so it is in Tesla’s interests to try to boost the sales of 85 kWh version relative to 60 kWh version.

These are complex issues and I am quite sure that they used considerable amount of time to ponder, why they ended up to offer the access for 60 kWh version as an option.

Initially it was that 40 kWh version did not have even option for supercharger access. 60 kWh version did have that as an option, and for 85 kWh version it was included. So I think that this suggests that Tesla is worried mostly the longevity of battery and potential warranty issues.

Someone has said that supercharging degrades battery two to three times faster than regular charging. But I do not know sources for this.

Jouni Valkonen

Also in Tesla’s rethorics Tesla is really proud that Superchargers will be free forever. It would be quite lame rethorics if in real life only for $100 000 Model S supercharger access is offered for free and cheaper cars such as third gen Tesla would be excluded from free supercharger access.

Therefore I think that optionality is only temporary arrangement. And it is there that Tesla can be sure that it is safe also for smaller battery.

Also Tesla offers free supercharger access for non-Tesla cars, if e.g. Mercedes pays their fair share of expenses. But today there are no other cars than Tesla that can accept 100+ kW charging rates.

tibi stibi

50km needs 10 minute. that is fine for most use apart from vactions. because you have to wait 20 minutes every hour of driving (100km).
it is getting close though

Wind Energy

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